Behind on your tax returns? Here is what actually happens
Haven't filed for a year or more as an Uber or delivery driver? What IRD already knows, what it costs, and how to put it right.
Written by Tax Accountant Limited, chartered accountants and IRD registered tax agent. Figures checked 10 November 2026.
If you have driven for a year or two without filing, you are not unusual and you are not stuck. This page sets out what Inland Revenue already knows, what it is likely to cost, and how it gets fixed.
They already know
This is the part most drivers have not quite registered. Inland Revenue receives earnings information directly from the platforms. Your fares are not invisible, and they never were.
So the question is not whether it catches up. It is whether you reach them first.
What it costs to leave it
- Late filing penalties, per return, per year
- Interest, running from the date the tax was due
- Shortfall penalties, which rise with how long it went on
- A default assessment, IRD works out the tax from platform data, with none of your deductions. For a driver whose vehicle claim is usually the largest number in the return, this is by far the most expensive outcome
The deductions are the point. An assessment based on gross fares ignores your kilometres, your phone and your platform fees. Filing properly, even late, is very often the difference between owing a lot and owing little.
Coming forward is treated differently
Voluntary disclosure, telling them before they ask, can reduce penalties substantially. And if the bill cannot be paid at once, Inland Revenue will generally agree an instalment arrangement. They would rather be paid slowly than not at all.
How many years
As many as you need. Nothing stops you putting old years right, and doing several at once is usually cheaper than one at a time, because the work of understanding your driving is done once.
"I don't have the paperwork"
Less of a problem than it sounds.
- Platform summaries can be downloaded for past years from your driver account
- Vehicle costs can be claimed at the kilometre rate, which needs no receipts
- Bank statements fill most of the remaining gaps
Let's sort it out
Tell us which years are outstanding. We will tell you what is involved and what it costs before you commit to anything.
Get started, it's freePenalty and interest rules are set by Inland Revenue and depend on your circumstances. Nothing here is advice about your situation; it is the general picture, and the specifics are worth a conversation.